


The Traveller's Blessing

by writtenndust



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 15:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15911049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writtenndust/pseuds/writtenndust
Summary: "You do better today, than you did yesterday." - Marcus Kane





	The Traveller's Blessing

**Author's Note:**

> In peace, may you leave the shore.  
> In love, may you find the next.  
> Safe passage on your travels,  
> Until our final journey to the ground.  
> May we meet again.  
> ~ The Travellers Blessing

The sun was finally going down over Camp Jaha. Abby had found a spot around the back of the crashed Alpha Station wreckage where there weren’t many people, but there was a beautiful view of the mountains, the trees and the orange, yellow and purple glow of the setting sun. It was beautiful.

She hadn’t imagined the Earth would be like this. She’d read stories and seen pictures, about trees and rocks and birds, but she’d never imagined that seeing it would take her breath away. Every movement, every leaf that shifted in the breeze; she never thought she’d ever be able to reach out and touch it.

She twisted a long blade of grass in her fingers, looking out at what was the third sunset of her life and she couldn’t imagine ever being tired of the view. Her shirt was still ripped open across her back, her skin, bare and cooling in the chilling evening air, with small patches of gauze where Jackson had done the best he could to ease her discomfort and keep the burns from becoming infected. Her whole body ached when she moved, but the stars were starting to speckle the sky, the air was cool and smelled of - she wasn’t sure what it was, maybe the trees? - and she felt at peace.

“Jackson reluctantly told me this is where you were.” A voice startled her and she spun around, far quicker than she should have, considering her back and she winced, one eye closing and her lip pulling up involuntarily as she saw him take a step down the rocks that she was perched on, and sit beside her. “Sorry,” He winced as well, noting her pain, but she just shrugged.

“I deserved it.”

“No you didn’t.” His voice was soft, self-deprecating, the voice of a man defeated by circumstance.

“No, I did. You heard me, but I didn’t listen to you.” His head turned slowly to see her eyes resting on him, big and brown and kind and he couldn’t think of how it was possible she could forgive him. “I’m the one that should be sorry, Marcus.”

They sat there for a while in silence. Abby knew that Marcus had decided to go on the journey to the grounder village with the grounder prisoner, she’d already said her piece about the chance that it was a trap, he knew how she felt. But even as the sores on her back stung in the cool air and she had the image of how they got there, burned in her memory, she couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of dread for him.

They were never friends.

Marcus was Jake’s friend, Jaha’s friend. He was only ever her adversary and on rare occasions, reluctant ally. They were alike in so many ways, she’d come to realise, that perhaps that’s why nearly every other day on the Ark, she’d felt an almost palpable need to slap him.

But she’d learned more about Marcus Kane in the three days they’d been on the ground, than in all her forty-one years on the Ark. And she’d learned even more about him, in a single day, then she’d learned about others, in a lifetime.

Yes, he was a soldier. Some wouldn’t attribute him to much else, had he not also been an orator. But he was a man who truly, truly wanted what was best for their people. And what was more, he wanted them to deserve it, in the way she’d wanted them to deserve the ground. He was also a spiritual man. No one would know it and she was fairly certain that if asked, he’d deny it. But she’d heard him speak the words of the travellers blessing, as his mother lay dying in his arms - she’d seen him when they were children, tend the tree with the care and gentle touch of a person who believed what they were doing, would somehow lead to a peaceful conclusion. 

Jackson hated him for what he’d done to her, and with every pinch she felt as she moved, she couldn’t blame him - Jackson loved her and would defend her to his last breath, he was special like that. But Abby couldn’t bring herself to hate Marcus. Not when she understood him.

And she did understand him. She was slowly starting to realise that she understood him, likely better than she understood anyone else. It frightened her, just a little.

“She’d have loved it here.” Marcus’ voice drew her attention back to him. Her mind had been running wild with thoughts of him, but the man was there beside her and his voice was so raw with emotion, she knew exactly who he was talking about.

“You made it, Marcus.” He turned again to meet her eyes. The sun was set behind the mountains, nothing left but a glowing line of gold across the horizon and a touch of pale blue before the sky turned to black and stars. “I think she’d be comforted by that.”

Marcus turned back to the view and didn’t address her words, but she could see a touch of the last of the day’s light reflect off a tear on his cheek as he nodded. “She asked me to bring the tree to the ground, when she found out I was going to be on the first Exodus ship.”

Abby watched him, mesmerised by a Marcus Kane who’s heart had been reefed out and placed in his hands.

“I treated her like she was an embarrassment, Abby.” He sobbed; a quiet thing, just one sound in amongst a sea of words more honest and bare than he’d ever shown her. “And when she asked me to recite the Travellers Blessing, I told her I didn’t remember it.”

“Marcus,” Abby started, but his words stopped her thought from finishing.

“My last words to her were spoken in annoyance.”

“Marcus,” Abby smiled. “Vera knew how much you loved her.”

“But I never told her.”

Abby reached out, her hand finding his in the growing darkness. It was in his lap, curled into his palm and wound tight. She soothed his fingers with a touch, wove her own between his to ease the tension in his grip as she smiled up at him. “You did, Marcus, of course you did.”

“I did bring the tree.” He smiled, turning his body halfway to face her and keeping their hands together. Abby realised she liked the feel of him, his hand was soft but strong, with a callus on his middle finger and a light dusting of hair on his knuckles. They were brave hands, willing to pick up the pieces of their shattered society and do their best to stitch it all back together.

“Then you should plant it.” She smiled, gripping his hand a little tighter, running her thumb over his knuckle in a caress that would have frightened them both, were they not sitting in the darkness, lit only by starlight. “On your journey tomorrow,” She nodded. “You should take it and plant it for her.”

She was rewarded by a sad smile, a touched, honest smile that reached his eyes.

A chill had fallen over the valley, the cool evening air turning to crisp night. She’d left her jacket back in the medical tent, not having intended to be out there all that long. Marcus noticed her shiver and pulled his hand away and Abby watched him as he started to shuck off his jacket down his arms.

“You must be freezing.” He noted, eyes shifting to her back, unable to see the marks, despite knowing they were there.

“It’s a little cold, but I can’t take that, Marcus.”

“Abby,”

“It’s not about being stubborn,” She smirked, shrugging her shoulders slightly. “My back’s just a little tender, still.”

Marcus’ eyes were now lit only by moonlight, shining at her with tears welling at the corners and an unbridled guilt. “I’m so sorry I put you through that, Abby, you have to know I didn’t want to.”

“I know,” Her voice was soft, laced with a small smile. “I know that. But you do better tomorrow, than you did today.”

“I will.” He promised, his voice emphatic and his eyes, clear of the past. “I promise.”

The End.


End file.
